or·al con·tra·cep·tive

(OC) (ōr'ăl kon'tră-sep'tiv)

A medication taken by mouth designed to prevent conception.

oral contraceptive

A drug or combination of drugs taken by mouth for the purpose of preventing pregnancy. Most oral contraceptives must be taken by women. They contain oestrogens and/or PROGESTOGENS and act by preventing the ovaries from producing eggs (ova). They also have some effect in making the lining of the womb less suitable for implantation of the ovum and may make the mucus in the canal of the cervix less easily passable by sperms. Oral contraceptives are second after sterilization in effectiveness in avoiding pregnancy. Risk attributable to oral contraceptives is very small among non-smokers but there are certain categories, notably women with thrombophilia from genetic mutations, in which the risk is slightly increased. The increased risk of breast cancer has been greatly exaggerated. It amounts to no more than roughly 1 additional case per 20,000 women. Also known as ‘the pill’. See also CONTRACEPTION.

(20.) Amir, Kiston-Rabin, and Muchnik; Amir and Kiston-Rabin; Higgins and Saxman; Whiteside, Dobbin, and Henry; Kadakia, Carlson, and Sataloff; Rubin, Sataloff, and Korovin; Morris, Gorham-Rowan, and Herring, "The effect of initiating oral contraceptive use on voice"; Morris, Gorham-Rowan, and Herring, "Voice onset time in women as a function of oral contraceptive use on the voice"; F.

This is Glenmark s third female hormonal product approval and it is the second approval for an oral contraceptive. The company received approval in April 2010 for Heather tablets, their generic version of Watson s Nor-QD tablets and the received approval for Norethindrone Acetate 5mg tablets on Thursday.

A Danish study, published in the British Medical Journal, suggests that the risk of thromboembolism in users of the oral contraceptive pill decreases with increasing duration of use and with decreasing oestrogen doses.

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